( ARCADE) Starblade スターブレード Namco 1991

Starblade (スターブレード Sutāburēdo) is a 3D spacebased rail shooter arcade game that was released by Namco in 1991. It was notable for its early use of realtime 3D graphics, produced using the Namco System 21 Polygonizer arcade system board, and it is believed to have had a strong influence on the 1993 Super NES Nintendo game Star Fox. The appearance of a pod in which the gunner controlled a double barrel laser cannon, was not a totally new concept in the arcades, but what was new was the method of how the image was projected. The arcade version of Starblade used a concave mirror (molded of black, reflective, and flexible plexi) to reflect the image from a 26 standard resolution monitor at the top of the simulator housing. This gave the player an experience of a deeper space environment which, with its lenslike effect, had never been seen in any video game at the time. The player had a large and heavy 2axis, 4button flight yoke controller which had a builtin red multiLED lamp that flashed as enemies